Abstract:
The magnetic levitation (Maglev) device is a one semester project that I completed for independent research, Fall 2007, of my sophomore year with advisor Bruce Land. All research was performed outside Cornell University, using my own equipment, resources, and funding. The magnetic levitation device is designed to levitate an object that has been implanted with a permanent magnet at a given height off the ground. The MagLev uses an electromagnet and controlling circuitry to keep the object stable at a given height. The challenge is not simple, as the system is inherently unstable, meaning that the object never wants to stay at a desired position. In particular, the system uses 2 hall-effect sensors for feedback into 1 st order PID control loop. The control loop runs on a digital microprocessor (ATMEGA32) and is actuated by and H-Bridge driver (LMD18200).